Qian Zhimin, a 47-year-old Chinese woman dubbed the 'cryptoqueen,' was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison in London for money laundering proceeds from a massive Ponzi scheme. The fraud defrauded around 128,000 investors in China of billions, with funds converted into bitcoin now worth over $6 billion. British police made their largest-ever cryptocurrency seizure in the case.
Qian Zhimin orchestrated a Ponzi scheme through her company, Lantian Gerui, between 2014 and 2017, luring over 120,000 Chinese investors with promises of high returns from cryptocurrency mining and health products. Investors deposited more than 40 billion yuan (about $5.6 billion), but Qian siphoned off around 6 billion yuan to buy bitcoin, according to UK prosecutors. The scheme exploited elderly and middle-aged Chinese, using tactics like daily small payouts funded by new investments and endorsements from figures linked to Chairman Mao.
As Chinese police investigated in mid-2017, Qian fled via Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Malaysia, entering the UK in September 2017 on a fake St Kitts and Nevis passport under the name Yadi Zhang. She rented a mansion in London's Hampstead for over £17,000 ($22,700) monthly and lived lavishly, hiring assistants to convert bitcoin into cash and property. Her diary revealed ambitious plans, including founding an international bank, buying a Swedish castle, and becoming queen of Liberland, an unrecognized microstate, by 2022.
An attempt to buy a large property in Totteridge triggered a police probe. Officers raided her Hampstead home and arrested her in York in April 2024, seizing over 61,000 bitcoin—valued at more than $6 billion today—in the UK's largest cryptocurrency haul. Qian pleaded guilty in September 2025 to possessing and transferring criminal property after initially denying involvement, claiming she fled a Chinese crackdown on crypto entrepreneurs.
At Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Sally-Ann Hales called Qian 'the architect of this offending from its inception to its conclusion... your motive was one of pure greed.' Her accomplice, Malaysian Seng Hok Ling, 47, received four years and 11 months for transferring cryptocurrency. A separate civil case next year will determine if victims recover funds, though proving claims may be challenging. Over 80 people were convicted in China for related offenses.
